Desiccation of grass



United States Patent 3,450,519 DESICCATION 0F GRASS Jerry H. Stoller, Savannah, Ga., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporavarious changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. Unless otherwise provided, all percentages are by weight.

fion Oakland Calif a corporation of D elawal, e 5 In accordance with the present invention, the above ob- No brawing Filed 6 13, 1965, sen No. 495,731 ects are accomplished by treating growmg green grass Int. CL n 5 mg w1th ammonia vapor and allowing the treated grass to US. C]. 71-69 5 Claims stand in the atmosphere for a short period of time after contact with the ammonia vapor. Thereafter, the treated 10 grass is cut from the ground for further processing. ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In carrying out the process of my invention, any suit- A process for desiccating growing green feeding grass able method for contacting the green grass w th ammonia for animals is disclosed. The grass is contacted with amvapht can be used' It has been tohhd eeohomleal and monia vapor and desiccated in the atmosphere by the vement to transport the ammonia out to the grass fields evaporation of the ammonia before the grass is cut. Such by h h of a tank truck' when the truck atrgves at desiccation greatly reduces the moisture removal load in fif ih gg g g i g i i i gg ig g i g gg subse uent treatment in a deh drator. a m V O a q y to be treated. In general, I found that the fioatlng vapor can effectively cover approximately 8,000 square feet of This invention relates to a novel method for the desicarea- This can be increased the use of a hose for cation of grass and, more particularly, to a novel method example to dtreet the vaper to polhts further away from for the desiccation of green grass to prepare the same for the e Aftet: one area 18 so tretted the firuck or subsequent processing, such as baling and pelleting. amtgoma cohtamer nllay mlove to hg i or It frequently happens that the feeding grass for animals, tuft er A f f a e a y mus such as horses and cattle, is grown in one part of the 0 ammoma applicator containing numerous spray nozzles country and shipped to another In shipping the grass or may be attached to a tractor. By releasing a contmuous hay it is advantageous to dry the grass and then bale or h the {moving tractor, the Pellet the same prior to Shipment des ccatmg operatlon can continue uninterrupted until an The present methods for dehydrating the grass, before ehttte held e A g or i sufltabte covgr the pelleting operation, are mainly of two types: drying can he draggeh 1nd t e t at a ew Secoh s the green grass in a dehydrator as soon as the grass is would be provided for the ammoma vapor to settle mto cut or allowing the cut grass to wilt in the sun to partially the grass ttssue' dry it before feeding into the dehydrator. If the grass is After eohtaetthg the green, grass Wlth amthehla h wilted in the atmosphere first, the capacity of a given the grass 1s allowed to stand 1n the field for a short penod hydrator can be doubled because of the lower amount of of t to 3 hours before It Is Thls the moisture which must be removed therein. However, the desteeahhg pened dhnhg Whteh the molsture content of grass may pick up moisture, instead of being dried, when the green grhss 1S greatly reduced' exposed to the atmosphere. This can happen, for example, In spe clfic a p a BPTSB tank havlng a 1,000 by Way of condensing dew and i f lL In addition to 40 gallon liquid capaclty was drlven onto a field of grass wilt the grass, additional space and labor for handling ready to be harvested- A Valve on the tank Was p f would be required. The grass which is cut and subjected and ammollla Vapor Was allowed to float across PP t rai fall will lose nutritional value, mately 8,000 square feet of grassed area. The following It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to table summarizes the results of this experiment:

TABLE Percent Percent Percent Percent moisture which moisture which Waiting period, moisture based moisture based must be remust be rebefore cuttin Green weight Dry weight Moisture on green wt. on dry wt. of moved to obtain moved to obtain (hrs.) (oz.) (02.) (oz.) of sample sample 25% moisture hay 10% moisture hay (I) 70 22 48 68. 6 2 193 208 o 17 3s 69. 1 223. 5 193. 5 213. 5 0. 5 76 29 47 61. s 162 137 152 1 74 30 44 59. o 146. 5 121. 5 13s. 5 2 52 29 33 53. 2 114 89 104 a 54 25 29 53.7 116 91 106 4 67 32 35 52. 2 109. 5 s4. 5 99. 5 5 70 32 as 54. 3 11s. 5 93. 5 108. 5 e 94 42 42 50.0 100 0. 75 77 31 4e 59. 8 14s. 5 123. 5 13s. 5 e 62 33 29 46.7 88 63 7s 1 Green sample.

provide a novel process for the desiccation of green grass. In the above table, sample No. 1 represents green grass It is another object of the present lnvention to provlde cut from the field immediately before the field was treated a novel process for the desiccation of grass which 1s both with ammonia vapor. Sample No. 2 represents green grass economical and fast. which was cut immediately after the treatment. There- A further object of the invention is to provide a process 65 after, samples of the treated grass were cut at regular infor drying green grass without causing injury to the same. tervals as indicated in the second column. Samples Nos. Still further objects and the entire scope of applicability 10 and 11 represent grass subjected to the greatest concenof the present invention will become apparent from the tration of ammonia vapor, i.e. grass located nearest to the detailed description given hereinafter; it should be underammonia outlet valve. The green weight of the samples stood, however, that the detailed description and specific 70 represents the weight of the samples immediately after examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since the cutting.

The green samples were exposed to the atmosphere and allowed to be air dried. It was noted that the ammonia treated grass dried in about 2 hrs. while the untreated grass took about 6 hrs. to dry. The weights of the air dried sample are recorded in the fourth column of the table.

Generally, the hay to be baled or pelleted contains between about 10% to about 25% moisture by weight. Therefore, the amounts of moisture which must be removed from the cut green samples to obtain a 25% moisture hay and to obtain a 10% moisture hay are tabulated in the last two columns of the above table. From these two columns it can be seen that the amount of moisture which must be removed from the green grass decreases sharply if the green grass is first treated with ammonia vapor and then allowed to stand in the atmosphere for a short period of time before cutting. Thus, when the green grass is first treated with ammonia vapor and then allowed to stand for two hours before cutting from the ground, sample No. 5, the amount of moisture which must be subsequently removed has reduced to about one-half of the amount which must be removed from the untreated sample (sample No. 1). Although additional desiccation was effected when the treated grass was allowed to stand for much longer periods of time, i.e. up to 6 hours, it appears that the greatest desiccating activity took place within the first two hours from the time of the treatment.

The amount of ammonia to be used per unit of area of live grass can be varied within wide limits. Although very small amounts of ammonia, i.e., 2 to lbs. of ammonia per acre, can be used to obtain some desiccation, the desiccating effect is small when ammonia is used at this rate. The use of extremely large amounts of ammonia, i.e., 50 to 100 lbs. of ammonia per acre, is uneconomical and not necessary. In general, it has been found that about 20 to 30 lbs. of 82% anhydrous ammonia per acre of grass is very effective and economically attractive. The cost of this treatment compares very favorably with alternative methods, i.e. drying the untreated green grass in a dehydrator or gas heater. Ammonia is a volatile and elfervescent material. Hence, the treated grass is found to contain very little of the ammonia applied thereto. There appears to be about 3 to 4 lbs. of ammonia retained in the grass harvested from an acre of standing grass treated in accordance with the process of this invention. The amount of retained ammonia will vary with the age and the moisture content of the grass, etc. The retained ammonia adds to the crude protein content of the grass for the purposes of animal feed. Moreover, ammonia, in the form of ammonium hydroxide solutions, is conventionally sprayed onto plant materials immediately after cutting to minimize deterioration of the vitamin and carotin content (see US. Patent 2,579,609 to Peebles et al.). Thus, the small amount'of residual ammonia will increase the feeding quality and the keeping quality of the grass.

It will be recognized that various modifications may be made in the invention as described above.

What is claimed is:

1. A process for desiccating feeding grass for animals comprising contacting growing green grass with an effective amount of ammonia vapor and allowing the ammonia treated grass to be desiccated in the atmosphere before cutting the same from the ground.

2. A process according to claim 1 wherein said grass is treated with about 20 pounds of ammonia per acre of growing grass.

3. A process according to claim 1 wherein said treated grass is allowed to desiccate in the atmosphere for a period of about two hours after said treatment.

4. A process according to claim 1 wherein said treated grass is allowed to desiccate in the atmosphere for a period of about two to three hours after said treatment.

5. A process as claimed in claim 1 wherein said grass is treated with about 20 to 30 pounds of 82% anhydrous ammonia per acre of growing grass.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,238,667 3/1966 Remmert 47-1.7 3,238,670 3/1966 Mahl et a1. 47--1.7 3,331,675 7/ 1967 Veltman 71-65 JAMES O. THOMAS, JR., Primaly Examiner. 

